The Action of 25 September 1806 was a naval
battle fought during the Napoleonic Wars off the French Biscay port of Rochefort. A French convoy
of five frigates and two corvettes, sailing to the
French
West Indies with supplies and reinforcements, was intercepted
by a British squadron of six ships of the line
that was keeping a close blockade of the port as part of the Atlantic campaign of 1806.
The British ships, under the command of Commodore Sir Samuel Hood, spotted
the French convoy early in the morning of 25 September, just a few
hours after the French had left port, and immediately gave chase.
Although the French ships tried to escape, they were heavily laden
and the strong winds favoured the larger ships of the line, which
caught the French convoy after a five hour pursuit, although they
had become separated from one another during the chase.

At 05:00 the leading British ship, HMS Monarch, was within
range and opened fire on the French squadron, which divided. One
frigate went north and was intercepted by HMS
Mars, while another, accompanied by the two corvettes,
turned south and managed to outrun HMS Windsor Castle.
The main body of the French force remained together and met the
attack of Monarch and the British flagship HMS
Centaur with their broadsides. Although outnumbered and
outclassed by the British squadron the French ships fought hard,
inflicting damage on the leading British ships and severely
wounding Commodore Hood. Eventually the strength of the British
squadron told, and despite a fierce resistance the French ships
surrendered one by one, the British capturing four of the seven
vessels in the convoy.

Contents

Background

The principal naval campaign of
1806 was fought in the Atlantic Ocean, following a raid by two
large French battle squadrons on British trade routes, focused
particularly on the Caribbean.[1]
The security of the French Caribbean was under severe threat during
the wars, as the Royal
Navy dominated the region and restricted French movements both
between the islands and between the West Indies and France itself.
This dominance was enforced by rigorous blockade, in which British ships attempted to
ensure that no French military or commercial vessel was able to
enter or leave French harbours both in Europe and in the French
colonies. In the Caribbean, this strategy was designed to destroy
the economies and morale of the French West Indian territories in
preparation for attack by British expeditionary forces.[2] To
counter this strategy, the French government repeatedly sent
convoys and individual warships to the French Caribbean islands
with supplies of food, military equipment and reinforcements. These
resupply efforts ranged from small individual corvettes to large
battle squadrons and were under orders to avoid conflict wherever
possible. Despite these orders, many were intercepted by British
blockade forces, either in the Caribbean or off the French coast
itself.[3]

The largest French resupply effort of the Napoleonic Wars was a
squadron under Contre-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissègues, sent to Santo Domingo in
December 1805 with troops and supplies. In conjunction with a
second squadron under Vice-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Willaumez, this force was
then ordered to raid British trade routes and disrupt the movement
of British merchant shipping across the Atlantic.[1]
Leissègues reached Santo Domingo in February 1806, but within days
a British battle squadron had intercepted and destroyed his force
at the Battle of San Domingo. Willaumez
was able to avoid attack by British forces during the spring of
1806, and cruised in the Caribbean during much of the summer, but
his force was eventually dispersed by a hurricane in August and
the survivors forced to shelter on the American Eastern Seaboard.[4]
Unaware of the dispersal of Willaumez's squadron, the British naval
authorities sought to block its return to Europe by stationing
strong battle squadrons off the principal French Atlantic ports.
One of their most important targets was the city of Rochefort, heavily
fortified port in which a powerful French naval force was based,
and a squadron of six Royal Navy ships of the line was assigned to
watch it in case Willaumez attempted to return there. In August,
command of the blockade squadron was awarded to Commodore Sir Samuel Hood, a highly
experience naval commander.[5]

In Rochefort, an expedition was planned to carry supplies to the
French West Indies while the British were distracted by Willaumez's
operations. Assigned to the operation was Commodore
Eleonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil, an officer who had served on Allemand's expedition, a
successful operation the year before.[6]
To carry the supplies and reinforcements, Soleil was provided with
seven ships: Four large modern frigates rated at 40-guns but
actually carrying 44–46, a smaller and older frigate of 36 guns and
two small corvettes of 16 guns each. All of the ships were heavily
laden, each carrying as many as 650 men, but it was hoped that
their size and speed would allow them to defeat anything smaller
than they were and to escape anything larger.[7]

Battle

Soleil's squadron departed Rochefort on the evening of 24
September, aiming to bypass Hood's squadron in the dark. However at
01:00 on 25 September, with the wind coming from the northeast,
lookouts on HMS Monarch spotted sails
to the east. Hood's squadron was spread out, tacking southeast towards the Chassiron
Lighthouse at Saint-Denis-d'Oléron with HMS
Centaur in the centre, HMS Revenge to the east (or
windward) and Monarch to the west. HMS
Mars was also close by, with the rest of the squadron
spread out in the rear.[8]
Hood's immediate reaction was that the sails must belong to a
squadron of French ships of the line, and ordered his ships to form
a line of
battle in anticipation. Even as the signal was raised however,
lookouts on Monarch identified the strangers as frigates
and Hood abandoned his previous orders and raised a new signal
ordering a general chase, confident that his ships could destroy
the convoy even without the power and defensive capability of a
line of battle.[9]

As soon as Soleil realised that he had been spotted he gave
orders for his ships to sail to the southwest as fast as possible,
hoping to outdistance the British squadron. However his convoy were
all heavily laden and were therefore slower than they would
normally be, while the heavy swell and strong winds favoured the
large ships of the line.[5]
The chase continued throughout the night, until by 04:00
Monarch was clearly gaining on the convoy, with
Centaur 8 nautical miles (15 km) behind. At
05:00, Captain Richard Lee was close
enough to fire his bow-chasers, small guns situated at the front of
his ship, at the rearmost French frigate, the Armide. Captain
Jean-Jacques-Jude Langlois returned the fire with his stern-chasers
and the French ships raised the Tricolour in anticipation of battle.[10]
Recognising that he was facing an overwhelming British force,
Soleil split his ships, sending Thétis and the corvettes Lynx and Sylphe southwards and Infatigable to the north. This had
limited success in achieving the desired effect of dividing the
pursuit, with Captain William Lukin taking HMS
Mars out of the British line in pursuit of
Infatigable while the slow HMS Windsor Castle
was sent after the three south bound ships, but the main body of
the Royal Navy squadron remained on course.[7]

At 10:00, Soleil accepted that his remaining ships would rapidly
be overhauled by Monarch and drew them together, forming a
compact group with which to receive the British attack. He also
ordered his captains to focus their fire on the enemy sails,
rigging and masts, hoping to inflict enough damage to delay the
pursuit and allow his force to escape.[11]
Within minutes Monarch was heavily engaged with
Armide and Minerve but Captain Lee found
himself at a disadvantage: the heavy swell that has suited his ship
during the chase also prevented him from opening his lower gunports
in case of flooding.[8]
This halved his available cannon and as a result his isolated ship
began to suffer severe damage to its rigging and sails from the
frigates' gunnery. Within 20 minutes, Monarch was unable
to manoeuvere, but Lee continued fighting until Centaur
could reach the melee, the flagship opening fire at 11:00.[12]
Hood passed the battling Monarch and Minerve,
concentrating his fire on Armide and the flagship Gloire. For another 45 minutes the
battle continued, Centaur suffering damage to her rigging
and sails from the French shot and taking casualties from musket
fire from the soldiers carried aboard. Among the wounded was
Commodore Hood, who was shot in the right forearm, the ball
eventually lodging in his shoulder. Hood retired below and command
passed to his second in command, Lieutenant Case.[13]

At 11:45, Armide surrendered to Centaur,
followed 15 minutes later by Minerve. Both ships had
suffered heavy damage and casualties in the unequal engagement and
could not hope to continue their resistance with the rest of the
British squadron rapidly approaching.[11]
To the north, Infatigable had failed to outrun
Mars and Captain Lukin forced the frigate to surrender
after a brief cannonade. With three ships lost and the other three
long disappeared to the south, Soleil determined to flee westwards,
hoping the damage he had inflicted on Centaur's sails was
sufficient to prevent her pursuit. However, Gloire had
also been damaged and could not distance herself from the British
flagship sufficiently before support arrived in the form of
Mars. With his ship undamaged, Lukin was able to easily
catch the fleeing frigate and opened fire at 14:30, combat
continuing for half an hour before Soleil surrendered, his frigate
badly damaged.[14]
To the south, Windsor Castle had proven far too slow to
catch the smaller French ships, which had easily outrun the second
rate and escaped.[7]

Aftermath

It took some time for the British squadron to effect repairs on
their ships and prizes in preparation for the journey back to
Britain. They had suffered light casualties of nine killed and 29
wounded, but among the more seriously injured was Hood, whose arm
had been amputated during the battle.[Note
A] French losses were much heavier but are unknown: Hood
did not include them in his official report but promised to provide
them soon afterwards in a follow up letter, which, if it was
written, has never been located.[13]
All four of the captured frigates were large new vessels that were
immediately purchased for service in the Royal Navy,
Gloire and Armide retaining their names while
Infatigable became HMS Immortalite and
Minerve became HMS Alceste. Although Hood and his
men were commended at the time, subsequent historical focus has
been on the bravery of the inexperienced French crews in resisting
an attack by an overwhelming force for so long. William James wrote in
1827 of the "gallant conduct on the part of the French ships" and
William Laird Clowes, writing in
1900 stated that "The resistance offered by the French to a force
so superior was in every way credible".[12][15]

Within days of the action Hood had been promoted to rear-admiral
and awarded a pension of £500 a year, but despite his wound he
continued in service, fighting a notable action with Russian ships
in the Baltic Sea in
1807 and later operating off the Spanish coast in the early Peninsular
War.[16]
French efforts to resupply their West Indian colonies continued
throughout the next three years, costing a heavy toll of men and
ships lost to the British blockade. By 1808, the situation in the
French Caribbean had become desperate and the French increased
their supply convoys, losing five frigates and a ship of the line
in failed reinforcement efforts during late 1808 and early 1809.
The weakened colonies were unable to resist British attack, and
co-ordinated invasions forced the surrender of first Martinique in January
1809 and Guadeloupe a
year later, Cayenne and
Santo Domingo also falling to British, Spanish and Portuguese
forces.[17]

Notes

^ The
despatch written by Hood in the immediate aftermath lists nine
killed including six on Monarch, a figure accepted by William
Laird Clowes (who does not provide a breakdown).[8][12]William James however
gives only seven killed including four on Monarch, without
giving a source for his figures.[13]
All sources agree that 29 British personnel were wounded.

^ William
James, following Hood's original despatch, reports this ship as
Thémis under Captain Nicolas Jurgan,[18]
but all other sources give Thétis under Captain Jacques
Pinsum.[5][7]